1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a feed tray used to support sheets to be fed to a device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there are apparatuses configured to convey sheets in the inside thereof. Examples of such apparatuses include image recording devices such as copy machines and printers. Some of the image recording devices include a paper feed cassette on which sheets to be fed to the inside thereof can be stacked. Further, downsizing of the image recording devices is required in recent years. If an image recording device is downsized, then the paper feed cassette installed in the image recording device is also downsized. As a result, it becomes difficult for the paper feed cassette installed in the image recording device to load large-size sheets.
In order to solve the above problem, there is known a paper feed cassette which includes a base portion and a slide portion wherein the slide portion is movable in a put-in/pull-out direction relative to the base portion. This paper feed cassette can be lengthened or shortened by moving the slide portion, thereby causing the slide portion to lengthen relative to the base portion when large-size sheets are loaded in the paper feed cassette.
Further, the paper feed cassette includes a lock mechanism configured to lock the movement of the slide portion. The lock mechanism includes a plurality of lock grooves each of which are separately placed in the moving direction of the slide portion, lock pieces for moving in a direction orthogonal to the moving direction of the slide portion so as to engage with the lock grooves, and a biasing member for biasing the lock pieces toward the positions of engaging with the lock grooves. By virtue of this, when moving the slide portion, if the lock pieces move to the positions at which the respective lock grooves are formed, then the lock pieces engage with the lock groves due to the biasing member. That is, the paper feed cassette mentioned above is capable of automatically locking the movement of the slide portion by the biasing means.